Voting with the heart or habit is no longer an option: we need to vote with our brains

NEVER before in the history of this country, apartheid years aside, has there been such an urgent need for a new ruling dispensation, be it the DA or a coalition between all parties including the CR faction of the ANC.

Cyril Ramaphosa should have marched his faction out of the defunct ANC and called for a referendum when Ace Magashule first tried to snake him with clandestine meetings with others in the shadows years ago. That was the beginning of the disintegration of the ANC. The line in the sand was drawn way back then. That was the opportunity for CR to make his move. What we have today is 35% of the workforce sitting at home.

We have a murder rate that’s out of control, carjackings, stabbings, gender-based violence, corruption, and the number of crooked politicians has never been so high.

We have a police minister who is obsessed with disarming law-abiding, honest gun owners and restricting gun ownership by trying to push through a bizarre, nonsensical new firearms bill instead of focusing on protecting the public.

We have a national police commissioner who enjoys no synergy with the police minister. We have a backlog of 70 000 firearms waiting for renewal licences, with just 5% completed since the last amnesty, with only three officials attending to these reapplicatios – an impossible task. We have a huge number of ANC-run municipalities all over the country in a shambles, most of them bankrupt through mismanagement and theft of resources.

The Zondo Commission has highlighted the rot and corruption that permeates throughout the ANC, with almost R1 trillion missing from the fiscus through graft. We have a public protector who is on record saying that only God can remove her from office as she refuses to budge, while attacking her personal targets.

We have a country that is in disarray. It is time for change! Voting with the heart or through habit is no longer an option; voters need to vote with their brains. |